Eight sky divers leapt out of a lightweight aircraft minutes earlier than it crashed and killed skilled pilot Paul Smith.
The sunshine aircraft crash landed in thick bush close to to Moruya airport on NSW’s south coast on Saturday afternoon, with Smith the one remaining occupant of the plane.
The 54-year-old pilot and skydiving teacher died on the scene.
“He was a really well-respected, very skilled, and really well-liked native resident,” Det Insp Justin Marks informed reporters on Sunday.
“The loss of life or sudden loss of life of anybody in a small neighborhood could be very tragic.”
Police are making ready a report for the coroner.
The crash occurred roughly two minutes after the skydivers exited the aircraft at roughly 14,000 ft to begin their descent. All eight landed safely throughout the airport grounds.
The chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Security Bureau, Angus Mitchell, mentioned investigators had been but to talk to the skydivers however different witnesses had noticed “uncommon sounds and flight sample” shortly earlier than the accident.
Investigators had been additionally in search of data on climate and circumstances from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Mitchell mentioned the aircraft, constructed round 1980, was topic to a “pretty substantive upkeep test” previous to being introduced into Australia about six weeks earlier and had carried out quite a lot of flights earlier than the incident.
He mentioned the investigation was nonetheless in its early phases and a preliminary report might be anticipated inside eight weeks.
Smith had greater than 20 years’ flying expertise and piloted extra that 20,000 supervised parachuting jumps. He was awarded the Australian Parachute Federation’s highest honour final yr – the grasp of sport parachuting – for his achievements and contributions to the game.
This text was amended on Monday 29 September. An earlier model’s subtitle incorrectly said that the crash occurred on Sunday.
